High Court hears dispute over supermarkets remaining open on Shabbat

The High Court of Justice on Monday ordered Interior Minister Silvan Shalom and the Tel Aviv Municipality to iron out differences within 90 days over a proposed new amendment to a law dealing with whether food stores can be open on Shabbat in Tel Aviv and whether they can be fined for being open.

The hearing came following a petition by a group of small and independent store chains to block the new amendment from going into effect.

The terms of the new amendment and the dispute between the Interior Ministry and the municipality were unclear from the hearing with much of the oral arguments revolving around accusations of which side had failed to answer questions from the other side or delayed the process.